Unexpected Reunions
by justareader13
Summary: While running from her parents' guards, Emma runs into a certain naval officer and reveals a shocking secret to him. (Lieutenant Duckling)


**I DISOWN EVERYTHING**

**AN: I've been wanting to make a Lieutenant Duckling fic for a while so here it goes. **

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18 year old Emma Charming ran through the woods ignoring the brambles, thistles and branches which cut her arms. She'd been on the run for months now after fleeing her kingdom and leaving her beau, Baelfire, behind. Their marriage was arranged by her mother Queen Snow White with his father Rumpelstiltskin. When Emma was 8 she got deathly ill and neither physicians nor healers could diagnose or treat her. Her mother, driven by the fear of losing her only child, decided to seek Rumpel's help but it came with a price. Snow made a deal with Rumpel behind her husband's back and promised her daughter's hand to Rumpel's son. Emma hadn't minded it at first for that was the way of royalty. Her mind changed when she found out her father was a shepherd before marrying her mother and when she really investigated their love story the whole arrangement struck her as the cruelest twist of fate to befall her so after trying for five months to fall in love with Baelfire and only succeeding in falling even more in love with the idea of love, Emma ran away.

She'd been living in abandoned cottages and getting rooms at inns and taverns all while running across the kingdom. At one point she was staying with her step-grandmother, Regina, along with her husband Robin and their son Roland. She had had to leave there in the middle of the night when her parents' guards came to search the place. After that she was staying with her friend Mulan in her small village at the outlying regions of the kingdom but the guards got an anonymous tip and now here she was running through the woods in only loose trousers and her thin, white chemise.

_My parents are such hypocrites._ She thought, pushing her glasses back up her face as they slipped down her nose once again.

She could feel her ponytail swinging behind her like a pendulum as her boots hit the dirt over and over. She could hear the guards behind her pursuing her and it made her push herself harder. She looked back to assess how far away from her they were. They were close enough to know they were pursuing someone but far enough to not truly know whether or not it was her. She turned and gasped as she saw a blur of blue and white before she ran smack into it. The two fell to the dirt groaning a bit at the harsh collision. Emma was quick to stand up but froze when she saw who she ran into.

_Him? Why'd it have to be him?_ Emma thought with a groan as she watched the young brunette man gathering his bearings. He looked up at her and froze as well.

"Emma?" He said as if he couldn't believe it was her.

"Hello Killian." She replied with a small smile while adjusting her glasses nervously.

Lieutenant Killian Jones was, Emma reluctantly had to admit, part of the reason she ran from home. She'd known him since childhood when his brother first joined the navy and Killian, as Liam's ward, tagged along behind him. They were playmates and spent nearly everyday together. As they got older Emma began to notice him in a different light. Afterall Killian was a good looking guy, really good looking and so easy to talk to and willing to do just about anything for her.

Emma didn't like thinking about that very much though because that was a scary thought to think about: that Killian would jump off a cliff, that he'd fight evil witches and orges, that if she told him to he'd sail off into the sunset and leave her alone but if she called him back he'd come running. They never talked about their feelings for each other, whenever they had innocent random kisses it was never mentioned afterwards, but when Bae came she ended whatever secret relationship they had saying she wanted to try with Baelfire, which she did though not for her sake so much as because her mother was pushing her towards him. Killian accepted it of course, saying that all he wanted was her happiness even if it wasn't with him.

_Stupid, honorable lieutenant._ She thought as the guards stirred more behind her. She whipped around to see they were closer. She grabbed the shocked man off the ground and pull him into more thick forestry before pulling him down so the two were laying belly down in the underbrush. Emma ignored how the nature around her scratched and irritated her skin and peeked up from behind the bushes to see the guards enter the woods where Emma and Killian just were.

"She was here, I know she was." The lead guard, Graham, said.

"Yes, I saw her too and someone else, she didn't leave alone." Phillip, his second in command, answered. Emma dug deep and remembered a spell Regina taught her. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply before releasing her magic in an invisible wave which created a false trail leading away from her and Killian. She let the trail stretch all the way to a lake five miles away. She also made the trail leading to her true location disappear.

"Search for a trail or any evidence as to where they went." Graham ordered. Emma looked at Killian, he looked like he'd recovered from his shock and was now looking at the guards apprehensively. Emma reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked at her but she just smiled at him reassuringly.

"I found a trail." Killian looked panicked but Emma just squeezed his hand.

"It leads east." The naval officer looked confused because he and Emma were to the immediate west. He looked at the princess who gave him a sly grin and mouthed the words, 'see, it's okay,' to him.

He finally smiled back at her and squeezed her hand. The two laid there grinning at each other in the itchy foliage listening to the guards rush in the wrong direction. They didn't really care though because they were together which was all they ever wanted. Once the sounds died down the two crawled from their hiding spots. They looked in the direction the men went before looking at each other. They stared at each other before Emma suddenly grinned widely and threw herself at Killian and hugging him tightly, his arms wrapped around her and hugged her just as tightly as he picked her up and spun her around a few times before putting her back in the ground. He pulled back and held her face in his hands a few inches from his as she held onto his shoulders. His eyes seemed to be taking in her face and memorizing every inch and plain of it.

She took the time to take him in as well. His bangs brushed against his forehead a bit more, his shoulders seemed broader and there was more stubble on his face. He had grown up since she last saw him, the subtle transition of teenager to man having taken place in her absence. Needless to say he had transitioned well. He pulled back and scrambled to take his jacket off before placing on her shoulders as she was only in a thin, now dirty shift. She immediately resumed the position they had before with her hands on his shoulders and her face close to his. His arms went around her waist of their own accord like they knew they belonged there.

"What are you- how did you- where did you...?" He stuttered out. Emma giggled at his flustered speech.

"Running from my parents' guards obviously, I have my ways and I just came from Mulan's village." She replied to each of his questions.

"Liam and I thought someone might have kidnapped you, we were worried sick. If not for our assignments we would have joined the search."

"My parents, or my mother at least, knows full well that I ran of my own accord. I left a note for them." Emma answered, her smile fading to a look of anger. She couldn't believe how unfair her mother was being. She knew it was foolish to break deals with Rumpelstiltskin but she didn't like the idea of paying for her mother's decisions, even if the decision had been for Emma's survival.

"But why would you leave your parents, your friends... your fiancée?" He asked. She could tell he had to force himself to say the last part.

"I do not, nor have I ever, had a fiancée."

"But Baelfire-"

"We courted, I tried to fall in love with him like I told you I would but it just didn't happen. Mother was pushing me to wed him but I couldn't do it, I couldn't enter into a farce of a marriage and live a lie. It wouldn't be right or fair to myself or to Baelfire." Emma told him. He smiled softly at her words. She looked down a bit while smoothing her hands over his shirt collar. She decided she would just go for the plunge.

"Father was the one who brought up an interesting theory on why I couldn't fall for Bae."

"King David is a very wise man, I'm sure whatever he told you reflects that wisdom." Emma nearly rolled her eyes at that. Killian always admired her father and he was always fond of the Irish sailor which was probably why he had mentioned anything to Emma at all.

"Well, Father told me that the reason I couldn't give my heart to Baelfire is perhaps because I had already given it to another." Emma revealed nervously. Something flashed in Killian's eyes before he put on a mask of polite interest.

"Is that so?" He asked.

"It is." She answered, biting back the smile when she realized he didn't think she was talking about him.

"And you? How did you take this revelation?"

"Well at first I vehemently denied it. Then as I thought on it I realized perhaps he is right."

"Anybody would be lucky to garner your love Emma and anybody would be a fool not to love you in return."

"So do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you love me in return, silly?" Emma responded with a giggle. Killian's face immediately turned up in shock at her words prompting a deeper chuckle to escape Emma's lips.

"Me? _You_ love _me_? But I'm not a prince or even a noble let alone a royal. I'm an orphan, save for Liam no one really wants me." Emma immediately frowned.

"Killian Brody Jones, how can you say that? I want you, I love you-"

"Y-You can't." He stuttered out.

"Why is that? Because someone falsely put in your head a long time that you were unlovable? Well too bad because they've been proven wrong. Liam loves you, you're his brother, and I love you. You're my best friend, my partner in crime, you make me the best version of me I can be. No matter what this person or people told you I'm not letting you go again. You are my happy ending, I ran away for you just as much as I did it for myself. All you have to say is three words and it'll all be okay." Emma told him passionately while caressing his face and holding him close to her by the lapel of his vest. He stared at her with glassy eyes, the orbs searching her face and her eyes. He was searching for lies, she knew because she taught him how to do it. He seemed to see what he wanted to see because a single tear slipped out of the corner of his eye and he smiled at her, genuinely smiled.

"I love you too, Emma." He told her in almost a whisper.

"That actually five words instead of three." She pointed out with a wide smile.

"Oh shut up." He said with an eye roll before lowering his lips to hers firmly. She felt her heart fill up with warmth and happiness and she knew she didn't have to keep running because she finally made it home to Killian's arms.

**Reviews?**


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